Student Award

Ryan Vogt won the 2017 Jeffrey Basford Scholarship. He is originally from Mukilteo, WA, which is located about 40 minutes north of Seattle. He came to the University of Minnesota because of its strong math and physics programs, the impressive Honors Program, and the truly personalized and friendly experience he had when being recruited to consider the U.

Vogt is using his award money to cover tuition and rent for next year. "This is particularly helpful because it means that I can save up the money I make over the summer for a trip to Europe (for at least a few months) that I plan to take when I graduate in 2018."

Vogt's research is primarily in Space Physics with Professor Glesener. Since January, 2016, he has been serving as the program manager of the UMN Cubesat team, which is an inter-departmental team including Professor Glesener from Physics as well as Professor Gebre Egziabher in the AEM department to design a Cubesat (a small nanosatellite) to study Solar X-Rays and Gamma Ray Bursts. "This project has given me a unique perspective of the overlap between physics research and engineering. This next year, I will be working on developing a calibration strategy for the X-Ray scintillation detector which is currently being designed and developed by other members of our physics team." Vogt says he hopes to continue to work in Space physics in the future and explore more of the intersection between engineering and physics. "I view this as especially important because our ability to understand and observe the universe with the precision that we need in order to further our understanding, we must design and engineer the tools needed to make these observations."